The one thing I don't envy about a Gates, Jobs, or Torvald is what I refer to as "daily life". I am convinced that I would be a complete asshole as well if I was in any of their positions. The things they are responsible for, the pressure of being "right" or "wrong", a daily schedule that doesn't have time for "nothing" written anywhere into it....I would be a complete dick in a very short amount of time.

Don't get me wrong, I am not sympathizing with them. These are men of power who in all three cases did everything they could to get their positions and maintain them. I am just saying that someone saying "they don't have to be such a dick about it" is patently false in my mind. The reality is that they probably do have to be a dick just to get anything done in a reasonable amount of time and with a suitable method. Hell, I have never been anywhere near a billionaire's level of success in business, but I can tell you from a management perspective, sometimes you just have to cut the pleasantries and skip to the part that matters. This inevitably rubs people the wrong way, but then they always seem so forgiving when it means they can go home from work on time later that day. Funny how that works.

Even if that opinion is completely wrong, I know one thing. None of us here have any idea what it is like to be in those shoes and judging them harshly despite their obvious success because their "approach" rubs us the wrong way seems a bit simple minded. Perhaps even ignorant. We don't know, we haven't been there. I can guarantee if we had, we wouldn't be here. I don't recall Bill or Linus popping in here to give an opinion, defend themselves, or share a BBQ recipe. Although, that would be kind of cool to have Linus pop in..call someone an asshole, demand Blue reformat the website, and then share his Hawaiian BBQ recipe.

He's at the very least the lesser of two evils. Both men have had reputations for being cutthroat business men. The difference between the two of them is simple. Bill has been putting tons of his money towards helping people. Steve Jobs had made little to no contributions towards charitable causes. Perhaps karma does exist.

Cutter wrote on Aug 12, 2012, 20:16:Yeah, all those billions Gates has given to charity. What an asshole. And Linus does what again?

He's the god-queen of Linux. That's about it. Last time I looked at his charity work, he's given nearly 50% of his total wealth away. The last time I heard him speak in person in Toronto, he wanted to give away 100%, the problem he said was, there's always more work to be done than the money he has.

--"For every human problem, there is a neat, simple solution; and it is always wrong." --H.L. Mencken